Big 12 expansion drama contrasts Big Ten poise
As I read Dennis Dodd's piece posted yesterday detailing the infighting at Oklahoma over proposed Big 12 expansion, I thought of the Big Ten. In a positive light.
Say what you might about Jim Delany and the conference presidents' decisions on expansion over the last 25 years – all started by Penn State – what you have not seen much of is public discord.
Oh, there has been discord. Plenty of it. But Delany has managed to keep most of it under wraps until a decision is made, then projected the image of a ship being rowed by 11 pairs of oars, then 12, then 14.
The Big Ten commissioner learned a lot from the execution of his first major move – asking Penn State to come aboard in December 1989 without informing athletics directors. That proved to be a mad scramble that had everyone from Bo Schembechler to Bob Knight chiming in with sarcastic potshots and the entire concept very nearly coming undone until a 7-3 vote six months later.
Delany really has never made a comparable mistake since. Whatever you think about the Big Ten's important moves since then – courting Notre Dame, forming a cable channel, inviting Nebraska, inviting Maryland and Rutgers – never did the conference appear conflicted and never did it look to be at war with itself.
These are vital qualities in any growing and dynamic organization. Because change and evolution is always necessary to maintain health. The steps in conceiving the direction of that change always are filled with disagreements. But if you look like a house full of Bickersons, you become dysfunctional in observers' minds.
Right now, if you took a poll of which of the Power Five conferences appears the most instable, it'd be a landslide for the Big 12. And that's not good, because perception tends to feed reality.
As I read Dennis Dodd's piece posted yesterday detailing the infighting at Oklahoma over proposed Big 12 expansion, I thought of the Big Ten. In a positive light.
Say what you might about Jim Delany and the conference presidents' decisions on expansion over the last 25 years – all started by Penn State – what you have not seen much of is public discord.
Oh, there has been discord. Plenty of it. But Delany has managed to keep most of it under wraps until a decision is made, then projected the image of a ship being rowed by 11 pairs of oars, then 12, then 14.
The Big Ten commissioner learned a lot from the execution of his first major move – asking Penn State to come aboard in December 1989 without informing athletics directors. That proved to be a mad scramble that had everyone from Bo Schembechler to Bob Knight chiming in with sarcastic potshots and the entire concept very nearly coming undone until a 7-3 vote six months later.
Delany really has never made a comparable mistake since. Whatever you think about the Big Ten's important moves since then – courting Notre Dame, forming a cable channel, inviting Nebraska, inviting Maryland and Rutgers – never did the conference appear conflicted and never did it look to be at war with itself.
These are vital qualities in any growing and dynamic organization. Because change and evolution is always necessary to maintain health. The steps in conceiving the direction of that change always are filled with disagreements. But if you look like a house full of Bickersons, you become dysfunctional in observers' minds.
Right now, if you took a poll of which of the Power Five conferences appears the most instable, it'd be a landslide for the Big 12. And that's not good, because perception tends to feed reality.
